Luka Doncic’s ‘inner demon’ comes out and ignites Lakers to sixth straight win

JJ Redick has called these moments “blackouts,” but Sunday against the Clippers, Luka Doncic was very much alive.

At the start, he bounded up the left side of the floor, forced Ivica Zubac into the switch and stepped toward the Clippers’ bench before swishing a three-pointer that seemed like it scraped the backboard.

Then he made another, and he started to jaw at the opposing bench.

Later, Amir Coffey got the assignment to cover Doncic and the Lakers star made another three, goading the Clippers to get someone who could actually defend him.

Read more: Hernández: Lakers find an identity, forged by a true leader in JJ Redick

Fire. Intensity. Showmanship. Skill.

A legendary anime warrior come to life.

“You’ve got a guy in your corner going Super Saiyan, for lack of a better word,” Gabe Vincent said. “And making great plays, hitting shots, it’s a lot of fun. It can give us a lot of life and we’ve been creating a lot of energy on the defensive side. And when he gets hot offensively, we feel like we can’t be stopped in that regard.”

Later, he made another three over ace Clippers defender Kris Dunn, spraying a spew of what sure seemed like obscenities at any Clippers player who thought they could stop him.

This was the place Doncic went; this was the place the Lakers needed him to be.

Playing without starters Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura and without emerging reserve guard Jordan Goodwin, the Lakers needed their stars to carry them — especially in their fourth game at Crypto.com Arena in the past six nights.

After struggling against Dallas and Minnesota and not having his best game against the Clippers on Friday despite scoring 31 points, Doncic carried the Lakers to a 108-102 win over the Clippers that was a showcase of both his spirit and production.

“It’s been great. The atmosphere is unbelievable,” Doncic said. “And we just want to give the people what they want and that’s winning the games. That’s what we’re doing right now.”

He finished with 29 points, six rebounds, nine assists and about 150 words screamed in all directions.

“It just seemed like throughout the game, when we needed a bucket, when we needed him to draw a second, third defender at times, he was able to make the right play — minus the six turnovers. But he played fantastic tonight,” Redick said. “And again, it was that verve and that spirit of competition. But also just something that is — maybe it’s an inner demon, I don’t know — but it comes out and it’s fantastic for us when it does.”

The Clippers have been a frequent target of Doncic’s game-changing abilities. He played a leading role in helping the Dallas Mavericks knock them out of the playoffs last season and he tortured them in first-round playoff meetings in 2020 and 2021 that the Clippers ultimately won.

In 19 career playoff games against the Clippers, Doncic has averaged 32.4 points.

“We went back and forth a lot with the Clippers,” Doncic said. “That’s what I like. For me, that’s fun. And that’s how I get going, especially on the basketball court.”

The Lakers were plus-19 in Doncic’s minutes, second only to Dorian Finney-Smith, their plus/minus monster, who finished plus-24. The win is the Lakers’ sixth in a row and 12th in 14 games.

Read more: Kawhi Leonard concerned about Clippers’ sudden struggle to win games

The win also moved the Lakers (38-21) to second in the Western Conference.

Needing 18 points to reach 50,000 career points (regular season and playoffs combined), LeBron James finished with 17. The final three came after the Clippers cut a 21-point lead down to five. James missed three shots on the same possession, the Lakers bailing him out with offensive rebounds each time, before he made a corner three to put them back up eight.

“There probably wasn’t a play more emblematic of our effort,” Redick said.

The Clippers (32-28) still pushed, desperate to even the season series with the Lakers at two wins each, but Kawhi Leonard’s season-high 33 points weren’t enough.

“Just got to get better,” Leonard said. “It’s not about individual accolades. We got to get a team win. And I think I said, we got to limit our mistakes and hopefully the ball falls for us in the future.”

Norman Powell, who returned to the Clippers’ lineup for the first time in five games, played only nine minutes before leaving with hamstring soreness.

It was a strange game, the Lakers jumping out to an early lead before Leonard found his best offensive rhythm of the season. He made a 16-foot jumper with 7:35 left in the second quarter to cut the Lakers’ lead to one.

But the Lakers, owners of the NBA’s best defense for more than a month, held them scoreless for the remainder of the half.

“We just play hard,” Redick said. “We compete.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.